Baowolf's Beginner Banquet -Sorry all tables are full no room.. (Page 21)

Cheri how did you determine what HR you should be doing for your long run?  Did you do a TT test to determine your HR zones.  My long runs are around 159 to 162 depending on how hard I am running them.  My LT is 175 so that is top of zone 2 bottom of zone 3.  If I knew what your TT HR for running and biking are that would help a lot towards knowing if you are running to slow for your fitness level.  Hr will drift up the longer you exercise which is why you have to watch it during an IM.  In a race you can actually burn a high z3 to z4 effort for up to 4 hours if your fitness is good for it.  Otherwise ya you can crash and burn.  My average HR for a marathon may be around 165 with the last several miles peaking up to 176 ish.  For an IM I want to keep it 159 ish.  For a 5k to 10 mile run we are talking 175 to 180. 

Drn foot, not even going for walks yet.  Ode to be healthy. 

Thanks Dennis!  Yeah, kinda leaning that way.  I like the idea of the one in Oct not being my first.  Sounds like you are headed for the beach soon.  Have fun!   

Steve, sorry about the foot.  Hope it is better soon, or maybe it's a sign to do a lot of swimming .

Interesting evening.  Tornado reported in an adjacent suburb, green skies and storm sirens going off.  We had to gather up the dogs and head for the bathroom for a bit, but seems to be all clear now.

Hi!  Thanks for asking.  The whole heart rate monitering is confusing to me.  I do have a good heart rate moniter and strap (not a Garmin but it works) and I did the following things below to determine my zones and MaxHR  and MinHR.  I posted my data on my blog.   I know that when I start to get up above 151 I start to percieve high levels of exertion when I run. maybe I am doing this all wrong...having self doubts.

MHR -  

the following method which we find to be about the most accurate formula method we have found.

Males:
210 - 1/2 your age - 1% of your total body weight + 4 = Predicted Maximum Heart Rate

Females:
210 - 1/2 your age - 1% of your total body weight + 0 = Predicted Maximum Heart Rate

                                                                           
This means a male of 45 years with a weight of 190 would have an estimated max heart rate of: 

210  - 22.5  - 1.9 + 4 = 189 beats per minute.

In general this formula is fine for most people and is likely to be the most accurate formula within plus or minus 10 beats of the actual maximum heart rate.  

?Then I did this

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Karvonen Formula

A very effective method of calculating your zones is by the Karvonen Formula.   This formula takes into account your resting heart rate (RHR).  Knowing your resting heart rate helps you to determine your Heart Rate Reserve (HRR) or working Heart Rate.   Heart Rate Reserve (HRR) or working Heart Rate the difference between the Maximum Heart Rate (MHR) and Resting Heatt Rate (RHR).  The greater the difference of your MHR and your RHR the greater your HHR or WHR.  This is important because this tells you how great your heart rate intensities can be. 

The best way to measure your resting heart rate (RHR) is when you first wake up in the morning and before you get out of bed.  Simply count your pulse for 15 seconds beginning on the zero count and multiply by 4.  You can do this for 5 days and then average the results.  This is your resting heart rate.  Keep in mind that lack of proper rest, stress and lack of proper nutrition, and medication can influence your RHR.  One sign of over-training is an elevated RHR.  By becoming aware of your RHR you can more closely become in-tuned with with how your body is reacting to different stimulus. 

You will also notice that using the Karvonen Formula the percentages of MHR will be higher.  This is because this method indicates more closely your actual VO2 Max. VO2 Max or Maximal Oxygen Consumption is the total capacity to consume oxygen at the cellular level.  This represents the total maximum aerobic capacity of the muscle cells.

Hey group! Miss reading this!  My internet was down for a week, then my son hurt his neck in competitive gymnastics, so I have not even thought about getting on the web to check in with you all.

Looks like training is going well for all.  I have had a hard time this week getting motivated to go out in the 90*+ weather!!! Can't wait for school to be out next week so I can train in the mornings. 

My next tri is on Father's day... in the Ocean. gulp.

Silly question, may not make a difference, but I'll ask anyway, as I am swimming longer now (yeah me) I am finding I am holding my breath then exhaling and inhaling at the head lift.  Before, I was exhaling  while swimming, then inhaling durig the head lift.  I feel as if I am a tad more boyant keeping the air in, but it is more effort to exhale and inhale quickly at one head liftt. Is there a correct way?

Keep tri'ing guys! -Karen

Hey Karen, good to see you!  Hope your son is OK, that sounds scary. So does an ocean swim for that matter.  Can't remember where I read it, but I'm pretty sure it is recommended to blow all the air out under water and only inhale when your mouth is out of the water.  I'm sure someone else will chime in w/ something more definitive on that.

I heard that it's best to blow underwater so that it's more like breathing than holding your breath, and that holding your breath can build up CO2 and make you feel out of breath.  It's somewhere on this site in some of the beginner swimming info.

So.  It took 48 hours on abx before my fever dropped down to 99 so I've been trying to push fluids and take it easy--or as easy as one can take it when there are small needy children.  The ear infection seems to be clearing up, which is good because then the drainage to my nose will stop and then my throat will stop being irritated and I'll stop having coughing fits.  And then I could sleep peacefully.  That would be very, very good.

Anyhow, I decided that since I felt somewhat better and the sun was sort of shining (we've had a shocking amount of rain in Denver--very unusual!) I'd take J in the jogger for a few miles.  Did that, but it was not pretty.  I'm headed off to pick up my oldest from kindergarten, and then it's time to meet with the personal trainer at the gym (my free session for joining).  It's not optimal circumstances, but oh well.

Yeah Karen I hope your son is ok.  Things with the neck and head always freak me out a little.

I am finally back on the bandwagon after 'breaking', our plane had issues, in San Antonio for a bit.  21 mile bike ride with a 16.55mph average.  It was an out and back and the out had an awesome 20mph direct headwind.  Then went swimming for 2200yds before I got kicked out of the pool by a kids swim team.  Hoping to get some good running in tomorrow though.  10 days and counting for me!

Keep up the good work guys and gals!

Marcus

Oh yeah and I fully exhale through my mouth and nose whenever my face is in the water so that I have no breath when I take my breath on my fourth stroke.  Works well for me and doesn't make me feel out of breath with the CO2 buildup.

Karen - I hope things with your son turn out to be no big deal. Please keep us posted! I have to admit swimming in the ocean is intimidating to me, and for the breathing I have never tried to breathe out and in when my face it out of the water. I thought about it today while I was swimming and decided that would be hard. So I say breathe out under water. I hope you get some sweet training in as life settles a bit.

Lisa - hang in there. I hope you get some rest and get back to training soon.

Marcus - nice bike and swim! Glad you are back again. You travel more than anyone I know!

Today I had a great swim. I am still working on the TI technique and though I can't see myself I think it is going well. There are little things I watch for that Laughlin mentioned, like bubbles, I try to not make bubbles. Wish someone was there to watch, but oh well. The GREAT news is I swam 900 yards today and that is .5 miles, which is the length on my tri in July. That makes me excited to know I can do it without much effort. Then I went out for a bike ride. that didn't go as well. I am not a strong biker, so I have to remember I am just building a base and not try to go fast. it is hard enough to just keep my cadence up and work with the shifting. I have an older road bike and the shifter are on the bottom frame bar. Not easily accessible to shift at will when needed. i am working with it though. I took yesterday and the day before off, so today is day one of a five day push. I feel good though and look forward to continuing to progress.

Memorial Day weekend. I hope you all have a sweet weekend doing whatever it is you are doing. So long for now! Thanks again for your support and encouragement. I need it!

Yeah I can travel quite a bit when I am free of school but as soon as June rolls around I with have to curtail traveling by quite a bit!

Great work on the swimming!  I remember just struggling horribly to hit 200 yds continuous and the one day it just kind of clicked and now I can do a full mile with little difficulty.  Keep up the good work.

As for shifting I honestly think this is the part of biking that will make or break a person.  It is unfortunate where your shifters are located but you need to get used to using them speedily and often.  I ride with a few people that have issues with shifting, not big ones, but some issues and I can just see the energy getting zapped from them as they are unable to keep a good consistant speed or cadance.  It would be like trying to drive your car down a freeway in second gear or starting at a stop light in fourth gear.  It just doesn't work.  Practice makes perfect and I know you are up to it!

Marcus

Hey guys-thanks for the last minute advice last weekend! I survived (and thrived) my first triathlon! To recap, it was a ladies only sprint (225 yd swim, 9 mile bike, 2 mile run.) LOTS of first time triathletes in the mix. You can see my full race report here: http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp... finished in 1:04:07, 25th of 101 in my age group and 173 out of 771 total! I wasn't rushing because my only goal was to finish. Now I have a time to beat for the next race. And I had so much fun that I signed up for the next race, same distance, different location in October. Definitely NOT ready for an Oly in the open water yet!

If any of you ladies have access to a Ramblin' Rose event, I highly recommend participating. They are well organized, the staff and participants were so supportive and positive. I know there's one in Tennessee, and a few in NC.

Takeaways: If you're going to dry off, don't just dry your feet thinking they will stay dry..The water from your legs/swim bottoms will trickle down during the bike and swim. Better off not drying off at all!

Practice accessing my water bottle on my bike. I can ride all day with 2 hands, but have not mastered the whole drinking while riding bit yet..definitely slowed me down a bit!

I'll stop rambling--You can read all the gritty details in my race report. Thanks for the support everyone and keep on truckin!

Excellent work!  The link didn't go through though.  Try putting it in brackets like this <   > and it should make a full link that we can just copy and paste.  Here is the link btw. <http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=253524>

Marcus

Sorry I have not had a chance to post much... work is crazy this time of year and I am pulling double duty with my boss going out on maternity leave and me doing her work and mine at the moment. 

So the concept of "head lift" with swiming concerns me.  You don't lift your head to breath you only turn your head to the side. Lifting your head will push down your legs and make it harder to breathe and balance.  Yes breathing out underwater is best with a short exhale of what you have left just before you inhale.  You don't really have enough time for a full exhail and inhail before your stroke catches up with your breathing... will make you lopsided in the water. 

Nice placement for a first tri way to go.  Everyone is rocking it in their early tri efforts and first races of the year. 

It snowed on and off today mixed with rain... really snow still.... sigh.  Oh well didn't get through all of my workout tonight because I couldn't run/walk at lunch, so 25 mile bike 5 mile walk for me today.  We see how the foot is tomorrow, hopefully we see something above 40F by noon. 

Ok that HR formula will not work for many people there are huge variations in HR. 

TT test for Run HR.  Warmup, then run 30 minutes at the hardest pace that you can maintain for 30 minutes.  Keep track of your average HR for the last 20 minutes of the run and then cool down.  The average HR of the last 20 min is your LT HR.  You can use hte BT calculator to determine your zones from there.   The 30 min run should kick your butt, but your speed should not drop off over the run.

For the bike... same thing, just don't do a bike TT and  Run TT in the same week.  You should be moderately rested for the TT, so not during a peak build week. 

K I'll catch up on more later need to get some zZs.

Kenzie, way to go on your tri!  Sounds like a tough bike course with all the hills and turns.  And I hear you on the water bottle thing.  Great going and nice placement in your AG and overall too!

Cheri, if you get the whole HR thing all figured out, please let me know.  It kind of confounds me....feel like I just don't fit the formulas too well as my HR tends to run higher than most formulas would predict (max over 200 at end of 5K's a couple yrs ago).  My husband, who doesn't exercise much at all, has a very low HR, and likes to joke that it's because he is a "finely tuned athlete".

Ceril, I looked at your log...nice Wednesday workout!

Lisa, glad you are feeling better!  How'd it go w/ the trainer? 

Marcus, ahh....adventures in flying, biking and swimming for you it seems.  Glad you get to do some traveling this summer!

Samantha, sounds like TI is working well for you!  Nice confidence building on the swim.  Soon you will be swimming 2 and 3 X your race distance.  It's like once you get over that hump, it's pretty easy to just keep swimming.  I'm so with you on the biking being difficult and slow.  Still wonder what the heck I'm missing sometimes, but just putting faith in building the miles up and hoping the rest will follow.

Steve, hope the work thing doesn't get too out of hand.  You have snow, we have tornadoes....weird world!  Will have to try the TT thing, thanks for the "how to" on that.

Weather (hail) here at DFW took a lot of planes out of service, and messed up our standby travel plans.  So we're scrambling to figure out a plan "b" on getting to the beach vacation.  Means I can squeeze in one, maybe two more rounds of "how slow can she go?" on my bike in the next day or two.       

Just completed my first ows in a tri wetsuit with a couple fellow BTers today.  It was a blast and completely different than swimming without the suit.  I can't decide yet if I really like it or not but it was pretty good having the suit because the lake temps couldn't have been more than 62.  Thanks to the experience of a few we practiced entry, exit, getting run over, kicked and whatnot as well as sighting which I still need a bit of work on.  This truly makes my first tri in 9 days feel right around the corner!!

Out for a run, ttyl.

Marcus

Tell your husband that Lance Armstrong's LT is 220... so your 200 LT moves you closer to his level of fitness than your husbands.. But mostly it is just genetic.  The trick is just finding out what your LT is and then building your workouts around it.  For some 160 is Zone 2 for others it is zone 3 and for some it is zone 4.  So you really need to know what your LT is to develop your zones if you are going to use HR for workouts.  Your bike LT is typically lower than your run LT, for me it is 10 beats slower per minute. 

The real way to look at your fitness is when you can run 1 minute faster per mile at the same HR as you used to run at the slower speed.  Also when your HR doesn't creep up so much during your longer workouts.

Hey guys, this will make your OWS feel nicer... I was goIng to do a practice OWS this weekend at the beach...guess what?? Stinging jelly fish  abound! Even made the news.   With the ocean temp nearing 78* no wet suit.  I guess I'll go back to the YMCA this weekend. Betcha don't have that problem in the lakes!-Karen

Oh and thanks all for your concern for my son-his neck.  He is recovering, two weeks off of gymnastics now.  He is going crazy and driving me crazy. His neck is improving, now his back hurts.  The doc said cuz' he was over compensating for the neck.  All in time. -Karen

Oh my, stinging jellyfish, yikes!  Yeah, I think I'd skip the swim too.  I'm actually heading to your neck-o-the woods tomorrow, briefly.  Connecting through Miami to Aruba, or maybe overnigt in Miami, or maybe stuck at DFW airport going nowhere all day. Either way, a forced rest day in store.  My friend just pinged me to sign up for our next tri on 7/17.  Will be another glamping and tri-ing weekend. 

Hope you all have a great weekend!  I may be out of communication next week, but plan on running and lots of open water swimming assuming the jellyfish don't migrate south.

Thanks to any of you who are/have served in our military.  We very much appreciate you and the sacrifices you make for all of us!

Well, I got 13 hours of sleep lastnight, still tired.  Hrm, rain forcast for the next 3 days.  Fun swim workout 200 yard sets from 2:02 down to 1:50 per 100 and then 100s down to 1:42 per 100 decreasing 1-2 seconds per set.  My wife videod me on a set so now I have to figure out what I am doing wrong.  Is funny that I get nervous when being filmed. 

Back to walking, foot meh not great but oh well, left calf spasmed out on me on the bike lastnight, hamstring behaving, mostly because nothing else is functional enough to push too hard.  I am going to have to take a solid  1-2 months off after the IM to get solidly healthy for next season after the IM... well I should. 

What's on tap for the weekend.  I did 3100 yard swim this afternoon, 60 mile bike ride tomorrow with a  5 ish mile brick walk/run and a 10-12 mile walk/run on Sunday with a 10 to 20 mile bike. 

I really need some sunshine and temps above 40 so I can get motivated to clean my chain.